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Shooting A Van, From Another Van
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Anyone one ever shot a car or a van from another car/van? I want to try and capture a sense of speed but keep the van sharp but don’t want to shoot from the side of the road.
Any advice anyone?
An estate car, or 4 x 4 with the tailgate open, or even a car with the window open and drive alongside and use a long shutter speed should blur the background while keeping the subject sharp.
A smooth road (pref not a public road, industrial estates can be useful) and a good driver are very handy too.
I was thinking of shooting out the window… Would you have any idea of what driving speed? Shutter speed?
I have a location in mind, but it aint private :wink:
This is something I’ve been wanting to do myself. Trouble is finding two suitable drivers and a suitable car to shoot.
You don’t need to be going very fast to do this. 30 mph is more than fast enough and even 10-20 mph should do you. Also, avoid doing this on a public road. Best to do this in a large car park very early on a Sunday morning or something like that.
The current (November 2008) edition of Photo Pro Magazine has a feature article on this very topic.
Cheers Thorsten. It’s a large van I want to shoot, I’m expecting it won’t be a problem finding a driver. My boyfriend also drives a van, si I think I’m sorted there.
Those speeds sound good too, was hoping it was going to be something like that.Was thinking of doing it early morning as well. Must get that magizine now.
Thanks again.
S.
Don’t know how to say this without coming across as rude, so please take this as a genuine question as I’m curious: what advantage is there to shooting a moving vehicle from inside another moving vehicle? Surely you could get the same effect standing stationary and panning with a nice low shutter speed? I know you said that you didnt want to shoot from the side of the road though… I suppose with panning though you would be fairly restricted to getting a side on shot?
I’ve done both – shooting hanging out the back of a van/estate car and also out the window. Out the window is generally used if you want to pan with the car.
Shooting out the back you can get an effect like the one below. I can’t find any of my other stuff with F3 cars as they were done years ago. But you get the idea – static car, blurred background & road. This was going about 60 mph around a circuit, hanging on for dear life! Faster with the F3 cars as they have overheating issues when going slow!
suspectmonkey wrote:
I suppose with panning though you would be fairly restricted to getting a side on shot?
That would be one of the main reasons alright. Shooting vehicle to vehicle allows you to get a range of different perspectives on the vehicle being photographed, such as photographing it straight on. Another reason for doing it is that the background is constantly changing, thus providing a wider variety of images. And it’s much easier to get the shot in the bag this way than by panning as the car being photographed doesn’t have to keep turning around or doing laps for additional attempts at getting the perfect shot.
Two other tools at the moving vehicle photographers disposal are of course low flying helicopters and lightweight boom arms which are then airbrushed out of the finished image.
Incidentally, here’s a link I posted before (I think) but one which is well worth visiting again, given the topic under discussion – Roman Kuhn: Moving photography
EDIT: Corrected spelling errors and fixed URL.
this sounds like fun. not sure what the road rules are like here though? just something you might want to consider. (ie no speedbelt, causing an obstruction? distracting the driver with your bum while sticking your head out the window?) you get my drift. i know in other countries, i think, but don’t quote me on this one, in germany, you can get fined for pulling into the shoulder if there is no emergency. and i don’t think the fabulous sunset or great light trails constitute an emergency.
keep us posted as to how you get on cos it sounds like it could be really fun! :)
I would say safety and using u loaf is everything.
Close off a quiet piece of road I have been to few rally shakedowns over the years on roads that were not offically closed
get u friends out and get them to close off extreamly quiet road with no houses on it .Do it early in the morning block the road at each end with cars and person in a luminous jacket if someone arrives phone everyone clear the road be polite tell the person u shooting a commercial an add for a magazine could they wait 2 mins to clear the road clear it straight away .let them through check the road again and away u go.
U can be done for obstructing traffic thats about it I think !!!!!!!.
Safety is paramount there must be no danger of anyone entering the road any accident and u goosed insurance will not cover u if they find out what u are up to.
Ger
Did you think of using panning or using the zoom while exposing methods? both would give a sense of movement and speed PLus if you stand on a bridge you can use the panning in a different way – rather from left to right , up and down.
Thanks all for the advice, very much appreciated :)
suspectmonkey- pretty much what Thorsten said, I would like a different point of view than from the side of the road, also means I’ll be able to take more shots.
mark- cool picture, I’m hoping not to have to go as fast as you though, thankfully the van doesn’t overheat while going slow!
Thorsten- once again, thank you very much for the advice, much appreciated.
summerdream- yes fun indeed. Safety has to come first for sure, never thought of my bum as a potential hazard though, except of course when it turns heads, tee hee :wink:
Gerl- hopefully I’ll be able to do this without too much hassle and hopefully without getting ‘done’ for something.
grif- panning yes, but zooming, no I never thought of that… will have to give it a go, the bridge would give a really different perspective too.
I’m hopefully going to get out there and do this soon, I have a few other ideas for this too. It’s all part of a project I’m working on at the moment. Have not shot anything for it yet… Getting all the ideas and thoughts clear in my head first. Starting to get a little excited about it all :mrgreen:
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